Japan Day 4: Shibuya

Not much to say about today except that W and I spent a whole lot of money at Shibuya 109 – the trendiest department store in Tokyo for gyaru fashion. We found a lot of local Japanese brands like moussy, Liz Lisa, Cecil McBee, Emoda, Luxe Rose, Egoist… The shop attendants are pretty nice, but kept talking to us in Japanese even when they know we barely understand. They all wear 5-6 inch heels, full makeup, perfectly styled hair, and coordinated outfits from their store. We saw one girl getting ready and curling her hair with an iron at the cafe where we were eating lunch…

Tried to get pedicures but were refused by all salons because we were wearing closed toe shoes and they want the polish to be able to dry for 3 – 4 hours. Next level customer service – maybe they’d rather refuse business than do a botched job.

Met up with O before heading home to drop off our shopping. Back to Shinjuku to try and look for an “authentic” izakaya, but our idea of an izakaya is probably a bit skewed by those we have back home. Ended up in a fancy, expensive one where we struggled to order from their picture-less, only- Japanese menu. Different waiters cycled in and out of our table to try and communicate with us in Japanese, Mandarin, and a little English. Was stressful at the time, but such an interesting experience to have to use a limited amount of three languages to order a meal… Luckily, the kitchen closed before we could throw more money at tiny, expensive dishes. Grabbed a Mos Burger to bring back home. Still good…